Humans! The promised day has arrived. Some said it wasn’t possible. Some said rude, badly-spelled things in capital letters. Others were simply impatient. No matter: it has happened. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the third game in the series that has an awful lot to do with why an awful lot of us remain faithful, unswervingly loyal PC gamers to do this day, has gone gold. And I’m not just talking about its colour pallete. It is finished, Eidos Montreal have just revealed. Complete. Ready. Well, ready as it’ll ever be – and that means its release date on August 23 is actually happening>.

And that means, hopefully, it’ll be in our hands soon.
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We’re in a for heck of a show today, ladies and gentlemen. It’s done eight minutes! It’s done twelve minutes! But can it go thirty whole minutes> of in-game footage without stopping? We haven’t seen a promotional campaign like this before, ladies and gentlemen – Deus Ex: Human Revolution is trying to go all out, all the way to the top, to show you so much footage that your bruised and battered corneas weep for mercy. Here it is now, ladies and gentlemen, our new heavyweight contender, striding confidently to the ring to the accompaniment of a bombastic little number from Vangelis – it’s the one, the only Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and we’ve got thirty huge minutes of hiding and hitting to look forward to….
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Once there were demos (something I plan to write about soon). Now there’s just promotion, and promotion of promotion. The below video is an attempt to make you preorder the super limited megascloosive ultrobucks version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and contains lingering, porny close-ups of the various paper’n'plastic’digital goodies therein, to the accompaniment of what sounds like the Battlestar Galactic soundtrack.

Do you want these things? WELL DO YOU?
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Where were you all last week? I turned up and no one was here, honest! What’s that? No, I’m not crossing my fingers behind my back, and you definitely didn’t see him heading off on holiday. What nonsense. Anyway, to make up for it, here’s an extra-long edition of Mod News to cover the past two weeks. This time: Crash Bandicoot, a Warcraft III art mod, a surprising number of trailers and a bizarre remake of Deus Ex…
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Oh dear. Internet rotters have done it again, this time turning their attentions to the official website for Deus Ex: Human Revolution and for developer Eidos Montreal. But their hacking is not yer common-or-garden Denial of Service attack or painting pink moustaches on pictures of Adam Jensen – it’s stealing the personal data of some 80,000 registered users. Thanks so much, hackers.
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The shimmery outline around key items and interactive objects in Deus Ex: Human Revolution caused a fair bit of consternation amongst Deus Ex fans the other month. Sure, it’s useful, but a big glowy yellow highlight around half the stuff in the world isn’t ideal for immersion, is it? It’s the old ‘loot glint’ argument all over again… Fortunately, the devs at Eidos Montreal appear to have listened to community feedback – you can now turn the bally thing off if you’re so inclined. Below: see what it looks like without glow-o-vision.
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Here’s some news for you. And not just news. NEWS. Valve Software have just hired a new employee. And not just a new employee. A NEW EMPLOYEE.

Doug Church. Doug ‘Thief’ Church. Doug ‘System Shock’ Church. Doug ‘Ultima Underworld’ Church. Doug ‘Deus Ex’ Church. Doug ‘helped (to varying degrees) design a good dozen of the most beloved PC games of all time’ Church.

And now he’s at Valve, who have themselves made several more of the most beloved PC games of all time. To don my Hat of Supreme Hyperbole for a moment, Elvis* has joined the Beatles.
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And just one last one here, unless Obama suddenly mails us to tell us how Deus Ex inspired his political career or something. It’s the lovely Ed Stern, Writer at Splash Damage who finds himself thinking about what actually writing these articles says about games… (more…)

When Deus Ex debuted back in 2000 it was showered with universal critical kudos. Well… almost universal critical kudos. The exception was Tom Chick, now one of the most respected American games journalists currently writing about the medium, who gave it a sub-50% mark. And no-one’s ever forgot it, though it’s long since been lost even to archive.org… though the lovely Crumbsucker has unearthed it. I felt I couldn’t finish our looking-backwards at Deus Ex without talking to Tom about his infamous running-joke provoking review… (more…)

Following on from the first two parts, here’s the influence of Deus Ex on two developers in very different places. EA’s RTS Lead Designer Saul Bass was in the industry for five years… and then left. Meanwhile, Aubrey Hesselgren was in Tiverton. There’s a dark future for you… (more…)